Since
agreeing to become a part of this web site, I waited for the chance to
read Kyle McAllister's and Geoffrey MacIntyre's personal accounts of the
events of August 17, 2000. The last two weeks have served up
exactly that. I have read Kyle's
"A
Day in Hell" and Geoffrey's
"Day in
Replay" with great interest. I wondered if conflicts in their
stories would arise, especially around the fight between them at Terror
Trax earlier that day. Since I was there that day, I was looking
forward to breaking any tie that might arise.
None
occurred.
At first
I wondered how this could happen. Geoffrey and Kyle hate one
another. They should! The constant battles between them
during Raychel's first recording sessions between February and June of
2000 ensured the project would never reach completion. The top
really blew off in June, when Kyle learned what I had already known:
Geoffrey was sleeping with Raychel.
They
never should have worked together in the first place. Their
personalities can't handle one another (even without the history between
them). In one corner you have Kyle McAllister. Kyle is
responsible for bringing Raychel to the music business (despite what Ken
Kincaid says). He is dark, passionate, and possesses one of the
most violent tempers I have ever experienced. In the other corner
you have Geoffrey MacIntyre. Geoffrey is responsible for
(possibly) exposing Raychel's music to a larger audience than had
previously been possible. He is specific, scientific, and
possesses one of the sharpest minds I have ever met. It is the
meeting of rage and reason. Fire and earth.
The
result was scorched earth.
It should
have been expected. I believe it was, but not by either Kyle or
Geoffrey. It was expected by Raychel.
In
one of my Q&A Responses,
I said that I thought Raychel was better off with Kyle than with Laura
Douglass. While I still believe that is correct, I didn't say if I
thought she was better off between Kyle or Geoffrey. The question
is interesting. However, it is also a false option.
|
"Raychel understood people, but she understood her "friends" better.
Raychel understood them to the point that she structured her friends
around her like a baby's mobile, carefully balanced to keep any
single person from controlling her." |
Raychel
never would have chosen between them. She didn't have to.
Why?
Kyle and
Geoffrey were two of the central points in Raychel's human balance.
Raychel didn't keep her friends because she liked them (ask yourself if
you like her friends). Raychel understood people, but she
understood her "friends" better. Raychel understood them to the
point that she structured her friends around her like a baby's mobile,
carefully balanced to keep any single person from controlling her.
However, the balance allowed Raychel to control any person in the
equation when needed.
Here is
how it worked. Raychel was at the center of the equation (as you
would expect). On each point of a triangle around her were Ken
Kincaid, Kyle McAllister, and Geoffrey MacIntyre. Since they were
all opposed to each other they managed to balance each other out.
If one of the three tried to pressure Raychel into something she didn't
want, she would use one or both of the others to fight against it.
Likewise, if she wanted something, she could use two of them to get
something that the other one didn't want.
The
perfect example of this balance in practice were Raychel's "secret"
recording sessions in late July and early August. Since Geoffrey
was not to know about it, Raychel used Kyle (who played the instruments
and knew how to use the studio) and Ken (who provided access to the
Terror Trax studio) against Geoffrey. Raychel got what she wanted
and the plan worked perfectly until Geoffrey found out on the day
Raychel was murdered.
The next
level of the balance was also a triangle. This one is inverted and
is large enough to contain the first triangle. The people on
these points are those who bridge the gaps between those on the first
triangle. Laura Douglass fits between Geoffrey and Ken (she knew
them both), Sergei Brosovsky fits between Ken and Kyle (the "secret"
recording sessions), and I fit between Geoffrey and Kyle. The
people on these points were conduits, able to provide assistance to
Raychel between those in the primary triangle. Keeping the earlier
example of Raychel's recording sessions, Ken used Sergei Brosovsky to
allow Kyle and Raychel access to the Terror Trax recording studios.
Had Ken attempted to open the back door for them, Geoffrey would have
become suspicious of Ken's daily movements. Using Sergei delayed
Geoffrey's eventual discovery.
Beyond
these two triangles were three other people that Raychel had not
apparently found enough use for. They are Lance Wagner, David
Vanderhoff, and Anna Fantiani. These people were in circles
orbiting the interlocking triangles. To my knowledge, Raychel
never used this section of the balance. However, it seems to me
that she could try to align these individual orbits of people to cause
change anywhere in the rest of the balance. I never saw a way that
this came into practical use. Perhaps she was waiting to find a
place for them in her balance.
I
expected that after reading my detailed description you would have one
of two reactions. You might think my description is too
descriptive. Your mind's eye cannot grasp the image. To
prevent that I have included the image below.
Click to see
the full image (136 KB)
The other
reaction would be that you might not believe me. My description
and diagram might be the work of a disgruntled ex-employee. To
prevent that I have this bit of information: The image above was
written by Raychel. It was torn from one of her notebooks when she
was living with Kyle. I wouldn't be surprised to find some "early
drafts" of this might be found in the set of notebooks that Lance has in
his possession.
Raychel
built a quilt of dangerous people around her, then balanced them for her
personal use. All the while she floated freely between them all.
She was a social chemist balancing her friends to maintain stability.
I have worked for some twisted people, but Raychel is the most skilled
manipulator of people that I have ever worked for.
Raychel's
gift was that she could draw people to her and keep them around until
she figured out how and when to best use them. If you doubt my
theory, just follow Raychel's path and see how she used everyone.
I have learned these facts from the one person who knew everything about
them: Raychel herself.
When
Raychel stumbled into a meeting of The Bleeders in August of 1997, she
immediately found Laura
Douglass. The Bleeders
gave Raychel a platform to read her poetry from. I cannot object
to the fact that Raychel was a talented poet, but by befriending Laura
(who was desperate for talent in her group at the time) she gained
access to an audience, favorable publicity from one of the founders of
the group, and (most importantly) access to a number of Laura's
high-profile friends. The supply of drugs didn't hurt, either.
Laura also provided a constant place to stay when things got rough.
And when you play as hard as Raychel did, rough happens often.
Over the
course of the next few weeks after joining The Bleeders, Raychel drew in
the other co-founder,
Lance
Wagner. In Lance's desperation,
(sufficiently detailed by Lance himself in
"At
First Sight") Raychel saw at first a holding pattern. As their
relationship evolved, Raychel learned how deeply Lance had fallen for
her. That he considered Raychel his Muse. From that point
on, the relationship became boring for her. However, there was
still use in Lance. Raychel knew that she had gained a long-term
legacy. Human insurance that Raychel's life (and her poetry) would
never be forgotten. This web site proves that Raychel was right.
|
"Raychel never considered herself as being held hostage. As
Raychel herself put it during one of our conversations, 'If I really
wanted to get away from him I could have done it while he was
beating the s**t out of Lance!' " |
Kyle
McAllister joined
The Bleeders in November of 1998, but he did not "kidnap" Raychel until
March. Raychel found Kyle very attractive, but she thought he had
little to offer her at first. During the "kidnapping", however,
Raychel learned that his passion was powerful and was worth
investigating further. Kyle proved himself worthy to her by transitioning her from
poetry to music during their time away from The Bleeders. For
those who wonder why I am marking "kidnap" the way I am, know this:
Raychel never considered herself as being held hostage. As Raychel
herself put it during one of our conversations, "If I really wanted to
get away from him I could have done it while he was beating the s**t out
of Lance!" As it was, Raychel's life changed dramatically at that
moment. She considered it a change for the better, or she wouldn't
have gone.
After
they returned from North Dakota and rejoined The Bleeders, they found
the stage there to be too small for their new venture. As luck
would have it, Laura Douglass' hate for Kyle was so strong she tried to
pry them apart by introducing Ken
Kincaid.
Laura's attempt only encouraged Raychel and Kyle that they were on the
right track. Ken provided Raychel with a new and larger stage to
work from and a pipeline of money. Raychel told me that she
thought she was mainly responsible for putting Terror Trax into
bankruptcy.
When it
did run into bankruptcy, again Laura came to the accidental rescue.
Raychel met Geoffrey
MacIntyre at one
of Laura's parties. When Raychel learned from Geoffrey that he was
being courted to become the new COO at Terror Trax, Raychel began
putting her claws into him. She laid the bait out for him and he
took it when he started asking Laura about her. Finally, she used him as a producer
and pointed him at Kyle. With the COO producing her sessions while
Cain International footed the bill, she could have stayed in the studio
forever. Kyle's anger at discovering her affair with Geoffrey,
however, changed that in June of 2000.
Raychel
works on attracting as many low-maintenance people as possible.
Most of those are men, for obvious reasons. Many of them don't
ever come of use to her. Some of them do. One of them was
the janitor at Terror Trax, Sergei
Brosovsky.
When Raychel needed a bridge between herself and Ken Kincaid, Raychel
broke the glass on her emergency friend. Being on the inside of a
secret with a pretty woman seemed all that Sergei needed to betray
Geoffrey. That was fine with Raychel. Sergei let them into Terror
Trax and kept their secret.
Anna
Fantiani was another type of acquisition altogether. A psychic
with a degree in psychology. Raychel kept her around as a
combination human Dowser's Wand and second opinion. Having Anna
allowed Raychel to have someone to check her social handiwork for errors or warnings.
When
Raychel was still suffering from Kyle's assault on her, she opened the
escape hatch when she contacted her brother, David Vanderhoff.
Just in case the web of friends came collapsing around her, she had
another place to run to.
Unfortunately for her, she was right. There was a defect in
Raychel's perfect balance. Someone Raychel "trusted" was not who
she thought he/she was. In retrospect, that is not a surprise.
The people Raychel were using were dangerous, desperate, rich, or
unpredictable people. Raychel thought she knew better.
Closing in on the one-year anniversary of Raychel's death, I wonder if
we will ever find out where Raychel's calculations f**ked up.
